


If Not the Weight of the World

by Kaesa



Series: Founders of Hogwarts [11]
Category: Harry Potter - Rowling
Genre: Action/Adventure, Challenge Response, Community: 1sentence, F/M, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Love/Hate, One Shot, Rare Pairing, Romance, Tragedy, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-15
Updated: 2009-11-15
Packaged: 2017-10-03 00:42:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaesa/pseuds/Kaesa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fifty themed one-sentence scenes about Godric and Rowena through enmity, rivalry, friendship, and affection.</p>
            </blockquote>





	If Not the Weight of the World

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the community 1sentence, where you have to write (surprise!) one sentence for each prompt.
> 
> The title is a quote from the Electric Bonsai Band song "Comfort Me."

**Memory**  
_Hogwarts: A History_ only has two chapters about the Founders, and neither of them make any mention of Ravenclaw's fondness for marzipan or Gryffindor's fear of dogs -- what little is said about them is only that they were the first Animagi for many centuries.

**Strength**  
Ever since he'd been cursed, Godric was horribly tall for his age -- ten feet and still going -- and it took all of his self-restraint not to repay the butcher's sons for fourteen years of near-death experiences.

**Forever**  
Although Circe herself had seen _something_ in the Muggle Odysseus, nowadays Rowena's family married Muggles only as a last resort -- although it was, of course, better to marry Muggles than commoners.

**Fire**  
Lord Armel Ravenclaw seemed like a nice enough sort, but he kept insisting that his young wife would burn for all eternity if she kept using magic, so he took away her wand and she entered her own private hell.

**Box**  
In this little wooden box, behind a fiddly little Muggle lock, was Rowena's sanity.

**Ring**  
Rowena examined her wedding ring with vague disgust; once she had thought it a magical object binding her to the Muggle, but now all she could think of was Plato's story of Gyges the shepherd and the corruption his ring caused.

**World**  
"There are... this is... there are _buildings,_" Godric said on his first trip to London, and rolling her eyes, Rowena replied "And cutpurses."

**Red**  
The cloak was the first nice thing Godric had ever owned, and it was the color of not-quite-dried blood -- to hide the stains better, said Rowena nastily.

**View**  
While he knew the view from the top of the tower was probably very nice, and perhaps as beautiful as Rowena said it was, his terror of heights had kept him from finding out.

**Fall**  
September was a glorious time of year at the school -- Lord Slytherin got a fresh new supply of sharp-smelling potions ingredients in, Helga's Whomping Willows turned beautifully lethal colors, and Godric and Rowena each tried to blame each other for inspiring the old rumor about the demon professor who ate students.

**Talk**  
"I didn't _mean_ for it to turn orange like that, it just _happened_, and _then_ when I tried to fix it it _bit_ me and I don't know what you expected me to _do,_ Rowena, because you've enchanted _all_ the desks to _bark_ when I --" and then, mercifully, her Silencing Charm shut him up.

**Cover**  
"I think she went to the greenhouses to look at Helga's fire-breathing snapdragons," Godric invented quickly, having seen Rowena dart into the nearest classroom as soon as she heard her mother coming down the corridor.

**Laugh**  
"So I was thinking," he started, and then paused before adding "...and don't you say it, you say it _every time_ \-- it _didn't_ hurt, and all the rest, and -- Rowena, _stop laughing!_"

**Forgotten**  
"Well, I _tried_ writing the passwords down," he explained, "but I think I might've locked the list in my desk drawer and I haven't been able to find the key to that since the Feast of St. Anthony."

**Dance**  
And of course, when she asked when _that_ had been, he couldn't remember very well: "I think it might be right after the Feast of St. Vitus... or is it before?"

**Lock**  
Rolling her eyes at him, Rowena picked the lock with a few well-placed charms, and after pulling out the little slip of parchment, she handed it to him and warned, "Don't lose it."

**Search**  
London was darker than he remembered it being, and he was terrified; if anything here could make _Rowena_ disappear, it could certainly deal with him easily.

**Ice**  
"Oh, we can't kill her," said her captor, smirking, "at least, not until they pay the ransom -- but then we can do whatever we like."

**Hero**  
"Oh, for -- I'm _fine,_ you idiot, you didn't have to come and get me!" she shouted through the bars of the cell, trying not to look _too_ relieved.

**Silence**  
Helga laughed when she saw them working peacefully together in the library rather than arguing, and knew without asking to undo the Silencing Charms they'd sent at each other.

**Mask**  
"And why would I want help with such a simple thing from a muddle-headed _moron_ like _you?_" she snapped, and immediately wished she'd said "Yes, I'd very much appreciate it, thanks."

**Unknown**  
"All right, Godric, you look first," she said, nodding at the magical mirror; she wasn't afraid of what she would see, oh no, she was just _careful._

**Run**  
"Oh, all right, but -- well, I know we've gone over all the charms before," he said, looking nervously at it, "but supposing it... I don't know... explodes?"

**Gravity**  
"But Rowena, that's ridiculous, I mean, the world _can't_ be round -- what happens to all the people living on the sides?"

**Farewells**  
"Good luck, goodbye, and don't kill each other," advised Helga, "_please_ \-- if only because without Rowena's money around to help us we can't _afford_ to find two new professors."

**Hurricane**  
"You know, Godric," she said, frowning at the gathering clouds and trying desperately to ignore the wild waves rocking the ship, "this may not have been my best idea."

**Silk**  
They wandered through the marketplace, encountering luxuries beyond their imaginings -- silk slippers and phoenix feather fans hang on every stall, apothecaries offer spices and bezoars alike, and then, suddenly, Godric found himself face-to-face with a real live _elephant._

**Journey**  
She walked well behind him, cursing the heat and the rocky slopes and the entirety of life beyond the British Isles, and he couldn't help but ask, "So, I suppose your lovely ancestors all came from the cold, rainy bits of Greece?"

**Promise**  
_Oh no you don't, I'm_ not _going to let you die here, you bastard,_ she thought, following him into the cave.

**Highway**  
"Forgive me for not trusting you, but firstly, I think the only reason this even counts as a _path_ is because we're trampling it up, -- and secondly, weren't you telling me about some bloke you were related to who wandered around in a boat for _ten years?_

**Body**  
Godric tried not to dwell on the curse too much, but ever since he'd outgrown normal ceilings, he'd acquired a new sympathy for Goliath, Grendel, and even this Polyphemus fellow Rowena talked about.

**Midnight**  
Rowena stood in front of the open grave, trying to hide the shovels (and the bodies they'd gathered), as Godric spoke hurriedly: "Yes, I _know_ there's a thunderstorm -- and it's _late_ and all -- but really, honestly, it's _not_ what it looks like."

**Candle**  
The candle-clock had melted into itself, and now even the big fire in the corner was sputtering, and there was Rowena, still squinting at her diagrams in the soft light.

**Sacred**  
"Really, they even let _me_ into a church once, I don't think they're going to exwhatsitate you -- and if they do, I'll feed them and their funny hats to some of your lions, _personally,_" she said, and though he wasn't sure she'd quite got the point, he decided to take this as an attempt at reassurance.

**Music**  
Rowena could just make out the bells of the church in the village, and though she refused to believe the story they told, she could see why people went, and she was, briefly, comforted.

**Drink**  
"It's a sacreligiously easy transfiguration to do," said Godric, pushing the goblet over -- and then, watching her spit it out after she drank from it, added, "though my taste in wine may not be the best."

**Temptation**  
As she rambled (somewhat drunkenly) about her various misfortunes in love -- the egotist, the vampire, the Muggle, the Arithmancer, and god only knew who else -- and how she Hated All Men, as they were Pigs, Godric reflected that the world was cruel, and should bloody well leave him out of it.

**Talent**  
He could, Rowena knew, be greater than Circe and Merlin combined if he wasn't so bloody proud of being self-taught and he'd just let somebody competent teach him -- and it was _this,_ most of all, that made her hate him.

**Eclipse**  
"Considering the amount of obnoxious wittering _you're_ going to get about being an Animagus, I would really rather you just tell them you did it yourself -- don't drag _me_ into this."

**Wait**  
One by one, the gargoyle came around to each of the Councillors and they filled its mouth with their ballots; it was no use trying to hurry the thing along, because nobody quite trusted it not to bite.

**Overwhelmed**  
It trotted over to Godric, and from its jaws, it spat a slip of parchment -- _Godric of Gryffindor is hereby elected by a vote of eleven to one to the Wizards' Council._

**Formal**  
The coat of arms bore a sleeping lion and the Latin for "by chance," which Godric felt was an accurate description of how he'd obtained it in the first place.

**Wings**  
Rowena always leapt eagerly into learning new things; unfortunately, flight as an eagle Animagus, while exhilarating, was a bit trickier than she'd realized.

**Fever**  
When Godric had fallen ill like that -- so suddenly, and with no contagion -- and when Rowena suddenly knew _exactly_ what to do -- well, it brought to mind the rather sudden way her husband had died.

**Whisper**  
"Godric, shut _up_ and _listen!_" she whispered furiously, and then he heard it -- a strange hissing voice in another language.

**Cold**  
"I think the _next_ time we get captured and locked in a dungeon, we should arrange to do it in the summer," she said, shivering.

**Lies**  
"I'll be fine," she said, "really," and collapsed.

**Breathe**  
"Well, she's still breathing," said Jasper, "but she might not be for very long."

**Hope**  
Perhaps it was because she'd been knocked out for so long, but it wasn't too incredible, was it, that she might still hope that his heart was still beating, that he was, perhaps, asleep, and not... dead?

**Dream**  
"I wish you'd quit bothering me now that you're gone," she told him, knowing she was asleep by how young she felt; when he laughed, she quickly added, "-- not that I think you're _real,_ of course."


End file.
